Life in the Slow Lane

We cheated. On a day not overburdened with practical actions, we did do one small act of practicality. Our vacation plan is to follow Pacific Coast Highway from the Mexico border to the Oregon border. Calculating drive times, we realized that heading south before turning north could add quite a bit of drive time… too much to make our one week of vacation as restful as we might hope. The solution? Do a round trip to the border as a Sunday afternoon drive. Like I said, low in practicality. But if we are going to spend too much time on the road, we should at least spend daylight hours on the route that inspired our trip. South on PCH, return via inland freeways. So yes, we cheated in not traveling a very literal border to border along PCH, but we traveled every stop-and-go inch of PCH through LA County. We deserve the credit. We begin on a still-raining Sunday afternoon. We grab some lunch, strap the kids in the car and wind our way through the mountain range to the sunshiny...

I am not terribly impulsive. Really. Vacation planning aside, I’m a slow mover. But that is not how we ended up starting our vacation on a Sunday afternoon. SOS and I have been trying to decide whether we can afford a vacation this summer. According to our pattern (firmly established over the first four years of our marriage), we have a vacation abroad, then the next year we stay in the States , and then repeat. Away . Here . Obviously, we’re due for something international. Our 1.5 salary disagrees with us, though. To vacation, or not to vacation? That is the question. Then Boss-man tells SOS, I really don’t need you in the office Spring Break. Why don’t you take some vacation? It’s too late to get SmilesBabyGirl’s passport, so we do the best we can under the circumstances: start our vacation at the border. California border to border, here we go! We had CutieLittleBoy be our Vanna and not SmilesBabyGirl in case there was an accidental border crossing and w...

Not that anyone in our house ever makes lists (no, never!), and not implying that if there were such a list-maker that her spouse would need suggestions in the romance department (quite the opposite, actually), and, one more disclaimer, as in all romantic endeavors, it is wise to not overdo things. 1) Notice the List . If your honey is a list-maker, it is a pretty good clue he or she thrives on the sense of accomplishment. And what, I ask, is accomplishment without acknowledgement? If you have not been gifted with a keen sense of observation, take a peek at your honey's list now and again. Then you can say with confidence "Honey, thanks for dusting the floorboards, they look great!" 2) Take a Cue from the List . Unsurprisingly, list making and the Love Language "Acts of Service" coincide frequently. If you've got a few spare moments, skim the List to see if there is anything you could do that would give your spouse the satisfaction of crossing someth...

This weekend was opening weekend for the LA County Fair, and we made sure to get there. Not because it was opening weekend but because we could get in for a dollar per adult rather than the $19 per adult on subsequent weekends. I'm fairly certain one of my earliest memories is from a fair where I was hot, tired, and sick from eating too much cotton candy. Today we swapped out the cotton candy for Italian ice (which a cheerleader managed to dump over me and the baby). As CutieLittleBoy missed the syrup shower, hopefully his first memories of going to a fair will be better. We saw pig races. (Although this pig is prize winning for going nowhere fast.) We saw lots of cool animals. We bought yummy flavored honey sticks. We petted stingrays. We saw Chinese acrobats and stood in the hot, hot sun. We saw lots and lots of trains. And we did not buy any Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joes . It was a good time.

My loyal readers may remember that this year, rather than taking an exotic or slightly neurotic vacation, we chose to stay close to home and vacation all year long.  Today's installment? A helicopter tour! As you might suspect when an off-the-wall, out-of-the-ordinary idea makes it to our day planner, this was a deal we simply couldn't pass up. Not only was there a Groupon voucher for a 20 minute helicopter ride, but we had a still-unused Groupon gift card from last Christmas and a use-it-or-lose-it promotion code for Groupon about to expire. When all three aligned-- well, it was meant to be. (Besides, it is my birthday month.) I suppose some might get upset at us for counting a tour of the Channel Islands (off the coast of Ventura) as part of our Los Angeles vacation, but our pilot/tour guide made sure to point out the various mansions and beach houses of the Hollywood stars on our way. The helicopter company also offered us champagne (we chose sparkling cider...

In case anyone is curious, having a baby (or the imminent waiting thereof) is bad for your text message allowance. Where is this magical "reverse" that shows the care instructions for 0-3 months? Many of you may not have realized that we have our very own home theater. These are the Good Ol' Days.

I said goodbye to my best friend on four wheels this week. We had nearly seven and a half years of a beautiful friendship, Burgle and I. She was the first car I paid for with my own money. With her faithful service I met the man I eventually married, left home to seek my fortune, and started my first real job. I married, bought a house, and birthed two children. I wrote a chapter for a book, served as an associate editor on an internationally published textbook and added two stamps to my passport. I answered more than 10,000 letters, translated a phone call for the office of the first lady of a Central American country... and grabbed naps in Burgle's front seat on my lunch breaks. I don't care to try and count how many times Burgle helped me move (not to mention the 5 months I was mostly homeless... or had MANY homes as my mother pointed out). At one point, all of my worldly possessions could be moved with only Burgle's help... even my recliner, dresser, and bookshelf...