Moving Targets

Other than the aforementioned purchase of the bug, and the return of the van without incident, this has not been our best car year ever.

The first incident, which we should have seen coming, happened this spring. Dad and Monica like to avoid leaving a car at the airport when the travel, and have asked us in the past to use one of their vehicles to drive them to the airport...the "plus" of this is that we get to drive one of their (generally more luxurious) vehicles for the week while they are gone. First year: Navigator develops weird grinding noise in wheel well, and must be checked for repair. Second year: Lexus completely dies in random parking lot, and must be taken in to repair. This year: Casey is driving the Navigator with Ava when someone darts out into a gap in stopped traffic, hitting him as he moves into the left turn lane. Thankfully, not so much as a scratch on Casey or Ava. Unfortunately, can't say the same about the Navigator.

In what Casey feels is a gigantic Novi plot against him, he gets the ticket. Thankfully, we're able to get it thrown out in court, since it's kind of ridiculous to get a ticket when you are the one with the right of way. However, I can tell you that it's only marginally easier to call your dad and tell him you (or your husband) crashed the car at 37 than it is at 17. That's one of those youthful experiences that I was hoping was far behind me.

Flash forward to this weekend - Casey instructs me to take his Nissan on my errand to the grocery. As the bug's behind our recycling and other items to go out that night, I comply. After buying the groceries, I'm check behind me, and start backing out of my spot very slowly, as I know that this lot has a lot of problems, including the blind turn I'm looking at, when CRUNCH, I get hit on the other side. On the plus side, the lady who hit me was very apologetic, and probably did have a hard time seeing me when backing up her large SUV. So, for the second time in three months, I have to call someone to tell them of an accident. I think that has to be my 20 year quota.

Thankfully, damage seems to be pretty minimal, and I think we'll be able to handle it without insurance. Still, I'd much rather be spending the same money on something like a new TiVo, or even kid's college fund.

Recent events

Ahhh, again I slack. I suppose I've been doing too much Facebook, not enough blogging.

To pull out a Master-of-the-Obvious phrase - much has happened.

Nothing earth shaking mind you - it's not like I've had a good excuse, such as a debilitating disease or epic struggle against evil to keep me from the blog. Just me. Those of you who love me will have accepted this by now, and undoubtedly will take consolation in the fact that I've probably seen you since the last post!!

Now the hard part...what the (*$&**& have I been doing since the last post? Ahhh yes, I do remember one reason for not being super candid...a couple of days after Halloween, we had to announce we were laying off more than 1/2 our staff. As (evil) HR, I was pretty deeply involved in this. (We moved two entire segments of our business down to our Mexican sister company) Thankfully, Jatco allowed us to offer our employees a good severence package. I also found a government program for employees displaced by movement of jobs to Mexico (part of NAFTA), so there were some good benefits to be had there too. Still really really sucked. Almost all of the employees we had to let go were long-term employees, well trained, loyal hard working folks, who just got skunked by the economy, and the lower cost of labor in Mexico. While it's easy to grumble at Mexico, or other so-called "LCC"s (low cost countries), whenever someone starts to do it to me, I just ask them if they shop at Wal-Mart. Or, alternately if they make sure to select products made in America, even if there is higher cost (and perhaps lower quality).

But as Casey would joke, "I digest". Layoffs for most were final on December 23rd, with a few employees staying over until the end of March. True to form, our folks were as good as gold through the end of their jobs, and we didn't have a single incident, accident, or other problem. In fact, they did such a great job that all the work needed to be completed was done early, so I wound up proposing that they spend the last month or so on the job doing some community service, instead of sitting here bored out of their minds. That was well received too, and we got a couple of nice thank-you notes from the various charities they assisted. Now, it's way too quiet around here. While I'm very thankful to still be employed, it's a different company than it once was, and it's going to take us some time to pick ourselves back up again.

In the mean time, Thanksgiving came and went. We had my mom and John, Casey's mom and Steve over for dinner. We brined the turkey according to Alton Brown, and it was delicious! Thank you food network.

Christmas really snuck up on me, since I was so busy with the layoffs here, but as always, it's nice to spend time with friends and family.

Spring brought Ava's 5th birthday (how is that possible?) We opened a few presents right after waking up. Once the easy bake oven was discovered, we had to make "breakfast cake." Being a little sweetheart, though, she made the cake, frosted it, and then saved it for Daddy. We had had taken the day off, for festivities. We grabbed her buddy Georgia, and made a day of kid friendly activities, such as hair, nails and makeup at "Sweet and Sassy", fed the ducks, etc. Nothing like purple and pink hairspray to make a girl's day.

By the time March rolled around, we were waaaaaay sick of snow, and generally depressed, laying off the last (and best) of our people scheduled for cuts, and then, to add a new level to the overall feeling of instability at work, our President resigned, and announced our new President would be starting in a month, at which time he would depart. Niiiice. Thankfully, I knew the guy slated for the spot from some of the many trips to Japan, and knew he was a very nice, cool guy who spoke English really well, and would be a good fit for us.

March also brought medical madness to the house for a bit, when Casey finally scheduled his shoulder surgery. During the rafting trip last year (I think I did a post...) another person in our raft was launched forward, hitting Sara in the head (thought she'd broken her neck) and Casey in the shoulder. While we were far more worried at the time for Sara, turns out that Casey's injury was more enduring, and they wound up having to go in there and shave a bit of his collarbone off, so that it would stop rubbing up against other bones. All went really well (and FAST - surgical report said surgeon did the whole thing in just under 15 minutes) and Casey was hooked up with interesting painkilling catheter, which blocked the nerve for a few days. I think Casey was more annoyed with carrying around the little pump than anything else about the whole process, and was bored of being at home after about 2 days. He wound up back at work in a little less than 2 weeks, and fully functional at about a month. Now he's looking forward to golfing.

Seemed like Spring took forever to get here. Maybe it just seemed longer because I was waiting to take the top down on the VW bug we bought in December. Yes, crazy time to buy one, Crazy like a FOX! I'm really going to have to start annoying people by using that phrase more often. The fact that it kept raining and snowing a lot probably had something to do with the whole doesn't-feel-like-spring-thing too. April seemed to slide along slowly, without a lot of distinguishing features.

In May, though, we had something to look forward to - a vacation in Hilton Head with my Mom, John, Angie and Crawford. Mom and John had gotten a condo rental in a charity auction some months before, and we'd all arranged to go down for a week. Hilton Head was very different from Outer Banks....much more golf oriented than beach oriented, at least it seemed to me. Certainly very lushly green compared to OBX. Very pretty. We were really happy to see Angie and Crawford, who is getting so big. He and Ava got along well, and we all had a nice time, if a little subdued, due to the large number of rainy days. Still, we did manage to get pool and beach time, and quaff many glasses of wine. Always a plus.

The Saturday after our return, Ava was the flowergirl in Steve's daughter's wedding. Surprising no one, she loved the dress, the attention, the flowers, everything. Surprising me, she was really well behaved at the altar, and stood through most of the (short) service like a well-trained bridesmaid. She only broke ranks and headed for Grandma Sue when she saw the big bag of popcorn they were using to keep 2 year old Van quiet. Had to get some of that.

Last but not least, we celebrated out 7 year anniversary yesterday, the 1st. It seems like yesterday....but that's a good thing right? I'd imagine it would feel like eternity if you weren't with someone you loved!! We had a very romantic dinner of tacos and chips, with white cheese dip brought up from South Carolina. Mmmm tacos. tastes like love.

Halloween

All things considered, this went pretty well. Ava really enjoyed her costume - a kimono I picked up on my last visit to Japan. Got a wig to go with it, so she looked very much the little Japanese princess. I too, was in the spirit, wore the shirt I made from the material I bought for Casey's toga this summer - black with skulls. I don't have a photo of me in the shirt, for reasons I will explain shortly. Mom came to our place in the evening, to go trick-or-treating with Ava and I. We were doing really well - I was amazed at how far Ava was willing to go. However, after about an hour, she started complaining again, saying her stomach was hurting. I'd cuddle her a bit, and then she'd press on. Then, about the third time, she lifted her arms to me again. I figured she was getting tired, and wanted me to carry her home. There was a short silence, then she exploded, drenching both of us in the ghosts of candies not passed. Mmm, vomit. I felt bad for the poor neighbor left with the evidence, but I was more concerned about squeezing the gunk out of my hair at the time. Sorry neighbor! We hightailed it home, and enjoyed a nice mother-daughter shower. Ava was most upset that she wasn't allowed any more candy that evening. She did get some enjoyment about informing everyone we met and all her classmates about the incident for some days afterward, so she's got that going for her, which is nice.

Correction re: lullaby

I checked the back of the CD - no piano and harp, excuse me. It's "glockenspeil, vibraphone and mellotone, and other soothing instruments." I'll have to sample some and put it up here. Totally hysterical.

Lullaby

After 4 years of the same lullaby CD, Casey decided it was time for a change, and came up with this:

Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions of Metallica

Yep, that's right - soothing piano and harp arrangements of Master of Puppets and other classics. Kind of eerie, I thought, as I'm mentally singing along in my head, "Sleep with one eye open/gripping your pillow tight/exit light/enter night" You've never heard a lullaby done with so many minor keys. Still, it beats her singing herself to sleep with some of the song lyrics she knows, like new Metallica - "Cyanide/I've already died." It's lovely in her child-soprano.

Goblin Day

This morning, as we were leaving for school/work, Ava asked me, "how long until Goblin Day?"



I asked her if she meant Halloween, and she said no, this was the day when we go out to catch Goblins. I pondered this, wondering if this was some pan-global tradition she might have picked up from her very diverse classmates. "Catching Goblins certainly sounds like a good idea," I told her, trying to get more info. "I'm going to catch a big Goblin and eat him up! And I'm going to be an Indian!"



Ah - light goes on. "Do you mean GOBBLER Day - Thanksgiving?"



Yes, that's it. We're going to catch some fierce Goblins and eat them up.



Perhaps the most ironic thing here is that her teacher is a true Indian - as in the kind from India, so I'm wondering if she thinks she's planning on wearing a sari to hunt down those viscious goblins.

The Outer Banks

For those of you who were unaware, my cousin Brent and his lovely new wife Cori afforded us the opportunity to see a beautiful part of the country - their planned wedding August 31st in the Outer Banks started us rolling. Not wanting to bring Ava to the wedding, and not being prepared to leave her in our rental like those idiot McCann folks, we were in a quandry about how we were going to accomplish a family vacation and an adult wedding. Thankfully, our go-to babysitters, Brett and Deanna Jones, helped us solve this issue by agreeing to pitch in their lot with ours and go on a two-family vaction. As Ava and their daughter Georgia are best buds, their son is a little prince, and we all get along merrily, this worked out great!! Deanna and I, being both anal and cheap, worked together to find a suitable rental, calculating out the acceptable amount we were willing to pay to be 2.5 feet closer to the beach, etc. After much reasearch, we found a wonderful house in Corolla (same town as the wedding) close to, but not on the beach, with plenty of room for all, and made arrangements through Resort Quest, who were very nice, and completely helpful, especially considering I checked in at the wrong office, etc. In any case, by 5pm on Sunday, we were on our way down to the waves. Alas, the Joneses had some difficulties on the way down - in typical Murphy's Law style, their van decided it needed some mechanical intervention the night before they set out to leave...but some delays aside, they made it down just fine, and we were all happily esconced, with bucket #1 of margaritas icing in the freezer by bedtime.

Tropical Storm Fay gave us some worries leading up to and at the beginning of the vacation - we wondered if we were going to see any sun at all - but Monday, Friday-Monday were all really sunny and gorgeous. Tuesday-Thursday were a mixed bag of rain and clouds, particularly Wed, when we all piled in the van to check out the neighboring communities, and have a pretty darn good mexican lunch. Even on the "bad" days, we always made it to the beach. In fact, some of the crew really preferred the stormiest day, when the waves were really crashing down, and the current was so strong you could barely walk in knee deep water against the direction of the current. Guess sunny days seemed tame afterward. We all got lots of sun, and thankfully, due to the liberal application of SPF 50, I tanned instead of burned. Casey burned a bit the first day, not due to a lack of sunscreen, but because body surfing tends to wear said sunscreen off a person. He learned quickly to reapply frequently.

Riding the waves was everyone's favorite pasttime - check out video, if it works!

In the evenings, after we put Ava to bed, (we finally learned to separate Ava, whose bedtime is around 8, and Georgia, whose bedtime is around 11) we'd play games. James, in particular loved UNO, and one night we all stayed up until 2am. James, being heartless as most children are, came very close to getting seriously throttled after hitting yours truly with every horrible card in the UNO deck turn after turn (when I'd get a turn), but Deanna, knowing me well, and being a good mother, stepped in to save him from such a painful learning experience.

The only bad thing I can say about the trip was that it ended too soon! Mom and John joined us on Saturday. They had arranged to rent the same house for the week after we left, so that we'd have two nights of overlapping accomodations, but no one would have to rent hotel rooms.

Wedding was great - very low key, and the bride wore a strapless red dress, which I thought was fantastic. Their vows were very heartfelt and touching, which believe me, is harder to do than it looks! After the brief ceremony, it was time to have some fun, and we had a very nice evening dancing, drinking and speaking with family and friends.

I got a touch more beach time in Monday morning, but then it was two solid days of driving home. We broke up the trip by stopping in some Maryland backwater, then finished on tuesday. Again, Ava was SOOOO good. She didn't say so much as a peep until about 2 hours from home, when she was obviously at her limit, and even then, she didn't throw a fit, just complained a little, and increased the frequency of her inquiries about home.

Wednesday, I was back on the job (and what a day it was, I tell you!) but Casey had the rest of the week off. Being a great guy, he used it to do laundry, and get some quotes for some home repairs we've been putting off. (I hate spending money to repair the house...I'm still paying for the stuff that's broken, and now I have to fix it?)

Vacation

Well, you know what they say about the best intentions....in any case, since the last post, we've obviously gone on vacation, which was fantastic.

We left a bit early to do a quick tour of D.C. - everything worked out well. God Bless the internet, where we used Hotwire to get a prime hotel (Capital Hilton, about 2 blocks from White House) and to book our tour bus package. We set out early on Friday, and drove about 7 hours to get to our hotel. I have to say I was VERY happy with Ava in the car...I was anticipating lots of whining, and endless "are we there yet" questioning, but she hardly made a peep, at least until we were off the freeway and into D.C. proper. Granted, it was a bit hard to get her to go to sleep when we were still awake in the same room, but once we put a sleep mask on her, she was out like a light. We had really nice weather for Saturday, our main tourist day.
We got tickets on the open top double decker bus, which did a huge loop around the major sites, and featured hop-on, hop-off access, which was very nice. Casey has been known to strangle tour guides who attempt to keep him captive or restrain his movements in any way, so I felt the flexibility to plan our own tour was far safer than a more traditional tour. Plus the tickets were good for two days, so that worked out as well. Of course in the entire two days, no one ever asked to see our tickets - if we had only known.


We hit a place that looked fun from the bus, Harry's, or some such place, which was a touch seedy, on the ground floor of an obviously very seedy hotel. Thankfully, as we've morphed into ancient early-bird-special types, we were done early enough to skip out before the place became downright frightening, and crashed hard at the hotel. Sunday, we set out for the Glorious Outer Banks. Will do second post for that one - whenever I do a really long posting, something goes wrong, and I wind up having to do the whole thing over...

Leave it to the Pros

I was preparing for our trip this morning, a beach vacation. I woke up early (5am!!), mind abuzz with all those little things that still need to be done. I decided, since I didn't have time to visit the salon, I would take care of some personal business with an an at-home "professional" kit.

Ok, 5am is so obviously not rational decision-making time.

In the interests of all, I will go no further. There will NOT be a photo to accompany this post!

Just please take my advice - it's worth far more than $25 to have someone else inflict a far smaller amount of pain and suffering for a much better result!

Active Weekend

Bad mom strikes again - no camera was taken on with me on any of the fun activities of the past weekend... undoubtedly I'll pay for this when Ava's a teenager and can use lack of such evidence to claim that we never did anything fun with her....

Friday night I lured Deanna away from more practical duties to see Batman movie. I'm a huge fan, and got the extra bonus of seeing trailers for both Tropic Thunder, which sounds hilarious (any movie that gets the protesters out is generally a "go" in my book) and Watchmen, which I'm interested in, having "read" the graphic novel, which was very cool. Batman movie was very good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so hyped. I'm much happier going in with low expectations and being surprised. Heath Ledger was very good, but I'm not sure I'm down with all the Oscar buzz. I like Christian Bale as Batman, with the exception of imperfect teeth (those of you who know me well understand my teeth hangup/fetish) and the fact that after a while his harsh-batman-voice kind of got on my nerves. Must give him lots of honey lemon lozenges after a couple of scenes, I'd imagine. Finally, while I like Maggie Gylanhall as a character actress, I just don't think she's summer blockbuster pretty. Too quirky looking, and while I can believe in Bruce Wayne liking her, based on long childhood knowledge, I can't see how she'd bag a babe like Aaron Eckhart. Generally I don't have a lot of faith in men seeing the "inner beauty" of women - even those white knight types just keep looking until they find a good looking gal who also happens to have inner beauty. They don't tend to settle.

On Saturday, Deanna and her family took Casey, Ava and I to Greenfield Village with her family. Maybe I haven't been in years, but they had a ton of stuff going on that I don't remember from when I was a kid, like Model-T rides, horse-drawn omnibus rides, period-appropriate games in the green, etc. We rode the omnibus, took a train ride, rode the carosel, and looked in a couple of places before the weather started getting dicey, and the girls started pooping out over walking. I wound up carrying princess Ava on my shoulders the last 1/4 mile. Next time, we'll bring a wagon and a picnic lunch on a nice fall day when they do the harvest type activities.

Sunday, we headed out to the golf course, so that we could play a few holes, Casey could practice his lessons-learned swing, and I could model new golf attire. We made it about 12 holes before the weather drove us in to the clubhouse for dinner. We all returned home tired and ready to sleep!

Busy Week

I think I'm finally back to normal after last week's frantic activity....

On Tuesday, I took off for meetings in Japan. For those of you who have never been, it's a 12 hour flight from Detroit (if you get non-stop), plus a 13 hour time difference, so you land about the same time as you took off, but the next day. I was actually very lucky on the way over...my strategy of getting tickets as far back in the plane as possible landed me a whole row to myself, and my two-scotches-and-a-benadryl kept the ears clear, and me asleep for almost the entire trip. Meetings went well (I won't bore you that much), and back to Detroit on Saturday. (the reverse trip means that you actually land before you took off!)

Then, (those of you who know me well know I could never think about passing this up) it was off to Jen's house for TOGA!! I was happy to be able to spend a few hours with my daughter at my mom's house, then she helped truss me up (and added fabulous, appropriate accessories, natch) and off we went.

The Party marked the first time IN FIVE YEARS that Jen and Mark have had a night without their twin boys. Yeah, I know. I would have lost my mind somewhere past the 1 year mark, and I only have the one angelic little girl, not two boys whom Jen once referred to as "the Sh*tflingers." (for actual monkey-like behavior)

I wrapped Casey up as best I could (he didn't want to drive around in his skull toga) when we got to Jen's. Jen, unlike the infamous housewarming party, was perfectly sober, and of course, being Jen, had a fabulous spread of delectables for all of us. Much fun was had by all - and apparently, we got lucky in that the "Baccus" award winner restricted himself to removing only his toga, and leaving on his underwear. Apparently the attendees of the New Year's Party were privy to the removal of his diaper costume (baby new year) at that event. Perhaps that happened because he didn't have anything else to remove at the time. I know not. In any case, the strip show didn't suprise anyone who knew him. This is obviously a rocking neighborhood.

Jen made up for lost time, and was her normal, cutest-drunk-in-the-world self, and eventually decided that a drunken trampoline nap was in order. Casey kept her company out there while Mark and I picked up a bit. Finally, I rallied Casey, and Mark escorted Jen upstairs.

Jen does blow my mind, though, as she was up the next morning, reasonably mobile, and had a fantastic breakfast cassarole ready to go. Plus, she made chocolate-chip scones. Very very yummy. After we'd soaked up all the hospitality that was reasonable, (and probably some extra) we headed out to pick up our girl and see the homestead. All in all, a very successful week!

Fun weekend

This weekend was a fun one - but really busy!

Saturday morning was breakfast out at the coney, where we witnessed psychosis in action, in the form of one very distressed customer. Casey seemed to have the second sight about her, saying "uh-oh" as she was walking up, in her ultra-tight black spandex capris and chocolate brown silky halter top. I was more alarmed by the giant coke-bottle glasses, white face and slash of poorly applied scarlet lipgloss. This peach comes in for a carry out order, waits, then gets her food. Now the fun for all of us begins. She opens her order, and is obviously not pleased. For the next twenty minutes, she chews out the waitress, the cook, and the rest of the patrons, shouting that she wanted her eggs "Round and Hard! Round and Hard!!!" muttering darkly about "smashed eggs" and seeming to imply that this was the greatest culinary mistake since low-fat cheese. She approaches the cook several times to complain (open kitchen coney) and berates the waitress continually. Mind you, this coney is about 20x20, so we all get to enjoy this. Several customers actually tried to intercede, including Casey, who, while paying our bill, kept it to the point. "Shut UP!" Eventually, she got her new breakfast (round and hard is apparently psycho-speak for eggs over-hard, as compared with over-easy), and after several more complaints, finally left. At this point, all patrons applauded.

From there, I went to the fabric store to get supplies for Togas. After much persuasion, Casey has agreed to wear toga to the toga party. The black, skull-imprinted cloth helped. I have opted for white, but dispair that I won't have a lot of time to assemble something more classy - I have to go to Japan again this week, and I come home 3pm the day of the party. Oh well, it's not like I'll be trying to pick anyone up...I've got skull-boy for the duration.

Saturday afternoon was at the Britt family gathering (Casey's mom's husband's family). We all had a nice time, especially Ava, who loves playing with other kids. The Britts put out some big (tall & well muscled) kids - Ava was the same size as the two-year olds!

That evening, we had a nice time hanging out with Casey's sister Shannon & her husband Jeff. We played eucre on their exceptionally nice screened deck, and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Sunday, it was off to the club for golf. We figured it was Sunday, there is almost never an event on Sundays, but alas, it was the parent-child tournament. Lucky for us, they did slip us on in the back nine. This is one of the things I love the most about the country club. Ava is getting a bit better - although she doesn't want to listen to mom and dad when we show her how to hold the club, etc. Casey and I have sort of plateaued at "terrible," but we really enjoyed the afternoon out. Casey has some lessons lined up soon, and I'll probably follow suit. It would be nice to have a handicap that actually accomplished it's goal of putting me in contention for anything....maybe next summer!

Bad Livvy

Ok, I've been a very bad blogger.

As much as I enjoy reading the blogs of others, I've been terrible at updating my own, so apologies to anyone (left) who is irritated with my lack of dedication.

Many many things have happened since the last post. Mostly just the main stuff of life, like Ava's birthday party, a promotion, a couple of birthdays, but notably, I did lose my last grandma, Nana, who several of you will recognize more readily as "my crazy Nana," who passed away in March. Since she was well over 90, it wasn't a shock, and I know that she's happier now than she was in the home. (Nana felt medical care was a sign that you hadn't adequately cast that devil out of you). More shockingly, I also lost my Uncle John, in the same week, so Casey and I drove down to Arkansas to attend both funerals.

I now have serious misgivings about getting promoted, as it seems that each time I do, something really bad happens. Given the Michigan economy, though, I probably don't need to worry about it for a while!

We went to Ohiopyle PA with our friend (and outing organizer) in June. A full account of our trip is available on Sara's website, sarasjoberg.com. she's a far more faithful blogger than I, and accounts our felt-like-near-death experience very well. (Although she did minimize the pain of damp cigarettes, and the body thrashing that accounts for such a circumstance when said cigarettes are encased in a waterproof pelican case, supposedly waterproof up to 30m). The bruises are almost gone now, but next time we raft, I want a guide in the boat - no more winging it for me!

July, as always, is all about the birthdays in the Fox household. Every year, we talk about taking the week off to celebrate our birthdays and the anniversary of the day we met (the 16th, 17th and 18th, for those of you who could probably care less), but it never seems to happen. We did, however, take Casey's birthday off, and we went to Waterford Oaks, the local wave pool/water park with Ava. A good time was had by all, though it was so crowded, I thought the entire county must have shown up. Not a downside for Ava, of course, but a bit claustrophobic for Casey. I just had to fight of my more violent urges, and remind myself that smacking 15 year old hooligans is probably not the best idea in the world.

Now, I'm preparing to go to Japan again. Good news is that it's a great sign that things are going well in my career, as I'm invited to help determine Global HR policy for Jatco, but I'm really not looking forward to the sweltering heat that's been promised. (the 18 hour trek, including 14 hour non-stop flight is also not so palatable, but at least I get the frequent flier miles.)

I'm also looking forward to returning for another reason: TOGA!! My friend Jen is having a grown-up (is there such a thing) Toga party on the day I return from Japan. Casey and I are planning on going, although I do worry about a repeat of the last time I was up for 24 hours and decided to go out....for those of you who remember it, one minute I was up and talking, the next my head was on the table. At least this time, people will only need to shove me to the side - we're planning on spending the night there.

Finally, at the end of August, we're planning on going on a trip to the Outerbanks (NC). My cousin Brent is getting married there on the 31st, so we're dragging babysitters, in the form of Brett and Deanna down with us. Ava and their daughter Georgia are buddies, so we should all have a fantastic time. Just prey we don't get hurricaine weather!!

Christmas

Ok, by now the whole thing is one pleasant blur, but thankfully, I do have some photographic proof that we did have a nice Christmas.

Ava was really into it this year, but pleasantly, she still is more excited about the people / party aspect of things than the material goods. I think Casey and I even scaled back on presents, considering how she really doesn't even play with the toys she has anyway. I guess we're not neglecting her enough for her to turn to the toys for comfort. Alas, even if we wanted to neglect her, I don't think she'd allow it.

Being two youngest children ourselves has left us with few resources for dealing with the domineering eldest / only child. Thankfully, our own selfishness does mighty battle with her selfishness, so she's not a TOTAL monster. Yet.

In any case, we had a lovely time at Christmas. The best part about driving to three places within 36 hours : no one makes you cook, or otherwise contribute. Programmed to the core, I cannot allow myself to completely enjoy this, and I keep offering to cook, but luckily, I am rebuffed every time.

After the merriment was over, Ava had a couple of nights with Grandma Sue, and I took on the upstairs bathroom - again. And, in what is rapidly becoming an annual curse, I am unhappy with how it turned out. What was advertised as "Smoked Oyster" should have been advertized as "only dark enough to show sloppy work where it meets up with white". I secretly blame Home Depot, as I suspect they may have mixed the color with the wrong base. My own lack of an eye for color couldn't possibly be the reason. Next year I vow to go with the Costanza approach, and pick the color that most offends me. Then it will turn out beautifully.

Joining the modern age

I'm as shocked as you are - really. When I went to check out the last time I posted, I thought I'd see an October date or something....no, it was August. Sooo, guess I have some 'splainin' to do.

Hopefully this should be easier - I finally asked to get a laptop at work, due to (at the time) impending second trip to Japan (which most sadly, took place the week of Halloween). Help facilitate my very gradual change into a workaholic type, I set us up wireless here at the old Casa de Fox, so I'm able to blog (without breaking the electronics useage policy I wrote) at home, sitting on the couch, drinking a nice little scotchy-scotch.

For those of you who want to know, here's a recap. September: uuuuhhhh...nope, drawing a blank. I have some vague memories of good weather. Otherwise I'd have to check my email to figure out what I was doing. Did remember Dad's birthday this year, and had a nice dinner at the club. (We did offer to take him out, I swear!!) Ava also started taking Gymnastics as well, with her best friend, Georgia. They're adorable, but I have to say the kid didn't exactly inherit a lot of natural skills from us... all the more reason. Hopefully she'll watch Georgia really well!

October: More glorious weather, with the only downside being the leaves not really changing until the very end of the month...not a lot of color. Time was spent working toward and worrying about going to Japan... again, to try and force Jatco HQ into thinking in a little more modern way about HR... you know, non-essentials like global HR framework for developing employees. I was pretty nervous going in...considering for a week long trip the HR department was only officially allocating 2 hours for meeting with me and other HR reps from Mexico and France. It turned out better than expected, and I have to say it's exciting to really have a strong voice and vote in the planning and creation of global HR systems for a multi-billion dollar company. Now if I could only get them to allocate a little larger fraction of those billions for me.... but more on that later. The really cruddy thing was giving up Halloween, my absolute favorite holiday. Thankfully for me, Shannon and Jeff had a holiday party the night before I had to hop on a plane, so I did get a bit of the holiday, and got to see Ava in her costume...

November: Again with the work craziness...due to a lot of both voluntary and involuntary turnover, it's been the year of recruiting for me, which of course sucks up enormous amounts of time. We'd hoped to see Angie and Crawford, who were scheduled to visit, but alas, it was not to be. Hopefully we will see them in January or February instead, so it will be really nice to have that to look forward to in the mid-winter, when all the holiday cheer has changed into winter doldrums. I was really happy to have some extra days off around thanksgiving, though - my first block of more than a couple of days off in a row without having to give up a vital body part. Thanksgiving was nice, but a touch melancholy - last Thanksgiving at Casey's aunt's house in Belding (didn't have to bring ANYTHING, which was awesome) due to the unfortunate pending divorce. Still, nice time had by all, and extremely minimal effort on our part. I've finally discovered the secret to lack of Thanksgiving work - bring a couple of poorly recieved dishes, and they let you off the hook. (Guess no one likes broccoli but me, huh?)

December: Starting off was the annual daycare Christmas pagent...got there early for once, ensuring good seats, which was kind of nice. Mom and John came with us, and true to form, John knew someone. Ava only made it about halfway through the program before crawling off the front of the stage and running over to us, claiming to be scared. This is the same girl who virtually chases down strangers to ask their names and find out what they're doing. The same girl who will gladly strip down and shake her booty at any random visitor in the house. Thankfully we don't have a lot of strangers over!! Oh well - it's all part of the drama for Madam President. She's picking up all the manipulative skills she can. We had our first episode (in a long time, anyway) of random vomiting....in the middle of the night she was crying for me, and I got there just in time to get the majority of the payload in my lap. Being relatively practical, I was just glad it was on me instead of the sheets and carpet. The episode was over in about 12 hours, but the lesson of sickness=no school is forever.

Currently, work is crazy - the only downside to the christmas break is the pressure to wrap up everything by the 21st....plus the whole year-end thing. Thankfully, my assistant is pretty quick...if I only had time to train her, it would be great. Did get good face time with the boss who seems to trust my opinion more and more, and who had good things to say at our last 2008 objectives session....don't want to jinx anything, but I hope I'll have good things to report soon. 'Course I told him I'd better have good news to report, or I'd be reporting somewhere else, so that may have something to do with it.

Tomorrow Casey and I have our annual shopping day - trying to get all the gifts out of the way before the last minute rush. Hopefully it won't be too insane!

Summer fun with Georgia

One of the best things about summer is letting the kids play outside....far less vaccuming involved.

Saturday, Geogia came over for a bit of kiddy pool excitement. I've upgraded this year's $30 kiddy pool allotment, and sprang for some kiddy pool sanitizer, meaning that I don't have to empty the thing just as soon as it gets warm. Georgia and Ava had a wonderful time spashing around (wish I could post video here) and Deanna and I had a wonderful time sitting in the shade watching.

Sunday, errand day, we ran around as usual, grocery, car wash, oil change, and Old Navy for more clothes for the little sprout, who constantly points out how big she's getting, "See this arm, Mama? See this leg?" I bought a bunch of stuff in size 5....on an untested theory that it can't be that much bigger than size 4, and she can just wear it a bit baggy to start. This theory was born because a) she grew out of the 3's so quickly, and b) Old Navy really didn't have bupkis in size 4. We'll see how it goes. If Ava looks like shes swimming in everything, I may have to relent, but at least I'll be prepared for when she is ready for the 5's, so no worries there.

Dollar Store Peanuts exhonerated

Ok, I assume I'm not alone in thinking that food sold at dollar stores is creepy, likely from China, and/or produced at the inception of the industrial revolution.

This theory seemed to be spectacularly confirmed when John, my mom's husband-without-a-marriage-a-la-Spencer-Tracy came down Monday with what seemed to be a horrible case of food poisoning. The aforementioned peanuts were the only variance in his diet to my mom's, Casey's and Mine, as we'd all had dinner together Sunday night. Said peanuts demonized, John prepared to wait it out.

When symptoms (not to be described here, you can imagine) continued, John went to Beaumont to get checked out, where they indicated it was some sort of stomach virus. John again prepared to wait it out.

Alas, the symptoms continued to get worse, so John was taken to Crittenton Hospital, where they diagnosed him with severe appendicitis....so, he had an emergency appendectomy, and found that it was indeed, in the process of rupturing, so they cleaned him up a bit, and he's in the hospital hanging out, making sure he's healthy, and blowing his birthday and the gathering he was looking forward to this weekend.

We'll be visiting him tonight, with the hopes of introducting the modern-day technology of DVD's.

photos

Somehow, photos didn't get into last post....

It was the busiest of times...

Ok, in terms of many people, it hasn't been that busy, but for us, we've been having a pretty busy summer. July started out in a nice calm way, with a couple of days of vacation for me, anyway. Unlike most vacation days, I purposely made an effort to NOT run around and do errands, or accomplish projects. Therefore, our upstairs bathroom remains a womb-like peach. Sometime when it cools down I'll get some new paint, but for now, it says peach. I also need to rebuild some sense of color conciousness....this effort sort of destroyed what little confidence I had in my ability to pick out a reasonable shade of paint. Granted, the downstairs bath came out really welll - I can pick out tan like nobody's business! When it comes to brighter colors, though, I'm a bit lost. But, you've got to keep trying if you don't want to earn some horribly bland nickname like "Champagne Livvy" right?

We were really glad to see our friends the McKernans, who came to visit for the holiday week, and came to the 4th of July parade with us and the Daguannos. We couldn't provide the entertainment value they're used to - alas, no quasi-klan type organizations, but we did get the f-14 flyover, so that's got to be worth something, right?

Sadly, we lost a friend that week - Bob Gray, great guy, gourmet, and fabulous Pirate suddenly passed away at the age of 50. I can't believe that someone so full of life could disappear on us. He and his wife Anne hosted us at their annual Pagan parties. I can never think of anything even remotely adequate to say, do, or even feel at these kinds of things, it's like whatever part of me that person occupied is suddenly torn away, I just feel the absence of that part. I also feel the shadow of age as well - 50 seems so young, and not far away. In any case, we were glad to be able to attend the funeral, which was probably the "best" and most touching example of such a thing - people were so honest and unaffected, which, ironically, made it very affecting.

Mid-month we headed up north to visit with Sara, who very generously allowed us to invite ourselves to visit her during her family week up North.
Unfortunately, it was a bit murky weather-wise on Saturday, but we had a great time hanging with the Sjobergs, who we haven't seen in quite some time. Sunday we all had a blast in the sunny weather. Of course the best part was quality time with our gal Sara - wish we could do it more often!!

Birthdays were really low key this year, as seems to be inevitable when they fall on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was a big day, though - 10 years since Casey and I met. How weird is that? Even so, we were really low key about that too. We're really good with the give-them-as-you-see-them kind of gifts, so events don't get a lot of gift-giving attention. Still, we did do well on the gift front..... we went to play golf with Dad out at the club, and he noticed that we were still using some pretty old equipment, ("That driver is about 5 generations of techology old!") and I believe it offended his golfing sensibilities, so he offered to get us new drivers for our birthdays. Well, no good deeds go unpunished, so his reward for his very generous gift was to have us go out to his club again to play with the gifts. We do love them, though, and have vowed to try to drink a little less and improve our games a bit more!

Needless to say, for those of you who know me well, the weekend of the 21st was spent reading Harry Potter book 7..... I was proud of myself though, I did manage to take my daughter out for breakfast before I sparked up the cartoons & started reading. Guilt over the perceived neglect actually had me doing more activities with her than I probably normally would, and we went to the playground and shopping as well. Mostly, I read from the second she went to sleep until about 1:30am. I was also amazed I was able to refrain from finishing the book that night - again, thoughts of being zombie-mom the next day had me putting off finishing until Sunday. Sigh - great book, but so sad it's over.

Summer of Ava

It seems that I start every post with an exclaimation of how quickly time flies, so I will forgo that message this time. Suffice it to say that when my next post goes up, it will have only seemed like mere minutes since the last one.

In any case, we've been loving the summer. Ava spent 4 days a week over the last two weeks learning to swim with Gramma Sue. She's not exactly swimming yet, but she is having a grand old time jumping off the diving board and generally spashing around. Casey and I got to enjoy the fruits of these lessons last weekend, when we went swimming with the Jones clan at their community pool. Deanna and I have been regulars over the last couple of Saturdays, but until this past Saturday, have been confining ourselves to the kiddy pool. This time the gents joined us as well, and we all had a grand old time, although it's much harder to pound cocktails while swimming, as compared to hanging feet in kiddy pool. Oh well, some sacrifices must be made, I suppose.