Sunday, May 18, 2008

This is like scrapbooking

Getting back onto the wagon of blog posting is tough after an absence. There's so much to catch up on it's overwhelming, and leads more often to no posts at all. Kinda like the scrapbooks that are sitting downstairs. I'm so far behind at this point, even with just our time in India, that I don't know where to start. And starting is the hardest part as we all know. Exercising isn't hard, it's starting to exercise that's hard. Scrapping isn't hard, it's starting up again after 6 months of not touching it that's hard. Finishing these crochet blankets isn't hard, but I haven't been doing it for a month (at least), so starting back up is hard. And since I haven't really blogged in more than a week, getting into the daily habit again... well, I guess I'm going to try right now. First steps, the tough ones.

Last Friday, Ian and I celebrated our Anniversary. It wasn't our Anniversary, that's actually today, but last Friday we had crazy Uncle Brian (our neighbor) over to watch the kids. Katherine was in Mumbai for the Making Friends Volleyball weekend, so we had the three younger ones who aren't quite old enough to stay home alone over night.
The Taj Coromandel is in the luxury line of hotels. By the end of the stay my eyes were a little worn out from all the rolling they did. From the butler who showed us to the room, the other butler waiting at the room, the porter who brought up our one tiny bag, the waiters at the restaurant who interrupted every 4-6 minutes to inquire into our food, our drinks, when can this be brought out, would you like a tour of the wine cellar, say good evening to the chef, here's a cake and flowers and (more) champagne, is there anything at all we can do for you?
The room was gorgeous. There's no such thing as a beauliful view in Chennai, but inside the suite we enjoyed a large living space, bedroom and bathroom, along with a dining room, sitting area, treadmill room, and piano. I wasn't quite prepared for all the options: no music, no tennis shoes. But for a single night, I made do (and paid for it in foot sole blisters), and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. The next morning I was treated to an ayurvedic massage. In Chennai the sexes are kept strictly apart in these things, so Ian passed on a massage for himself. Ayurveda is not really my cup of tea, but for the experience it was worth it to turn into a slip-n-slide of oily messiness. And get showered after. Like I said, not quite my cup of tea (though actually the hot ginger tea was quite good).
Last night we attended a wine and cheese party at a coworkers home. There was wine and cheese, but also jewelry and carpets. For anyone who follows such things, the 12th Anniversary is the silk anniversary, so we're now the proud owners of a silk-on-silk 4x6 carpet. Eventually we will get a 9x12 for our future home, but it will be most likely be a silk-on-cotton or a wool-on-cotton. Much more affordable and just as lovely.
We've also been to a Cinco de Mayo party this past week, held on the 10th. The food was extensive and delicious and there were even pinatas to smash. I don't drink and Ian only drinks a little, but I have to say that folks who drink excessively can be amusing in short bursts, especially when blindfolded and swinging a foam bat. As long as you stand plenty far away. Apparently the hosting family does this each year. They had a nice mix of people too, some new faces we hadn't seen before.
Some other things have gone on this week as well. Katherine was in Mumbai from the 9-11th. She was able to go with the volleyball team and had a fabulous time staying with her host family. It helped they were Filipino and had 3 girls. She went with the Chennai girls B team, and in the round robin they pulled out a win against the Chennai girls A team. All it takes is a single win to make the whole weekend really worth it.
This past week was the H&L conference at the Consulate. Ian had a presentation one day, attended the rest of the conferece and went to two evening functions. He's bushed. Rebecca went to a sleepover swim birthday party on Friday night. She's still recovering from that. Jonathon went to a sleepover on Friday night, then a birthday swim party Saturday afternoon. He crashed on the couch about an hour after he got home. Ian took Nicholas to see "Ironman" while Jonathon was at his party and while the girls and I were at USA Day talking about family histories. Friday after school Katherine attended the Middle School sports awards, followed immediately by the last MS dance of the year. Friday evening Ian was at poker at the neighbor's house for his 40th birthday.
In addition to all this, over the past week I've had 2 lunches out with friends (we all need downtime!), watched loads of after school swimming, made chocolate chip cookies for Rebecca's class demonstration along with separate ingredients for demonstrating how to make a single cookie (thank goodness they weren't going to eat it because the proportions were just a little off), picked up some outfits from Rashika... ooh, I have to put pictures up of the girls in their outfits! Soooo cute..., hung shell strands in the girls' room, finished 2 books, had the neighbor kid over for 2 nights while his dad was out of town, went through the kids' workbooks for this summer and put together their rough schedule, ordered some supplies for summer activities, ordered from netgrocer, pulled out the dozen or so things we need framed....
The laundry is way behind. And don't even ask me about the ironing.

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