ah, life in rural New York...

Sunny is happy I'm home. She follows me around. The kitty seems happy to see me too. Suri, well, Suri...she's always happy. She thinks being pet and patted on the head is just heaven. And the Kettler, Mama cat...she's just happy to have a splash of half and half in her bowl every morning again.

It's lovely to be home. Yesterday, I spent most of the day puttering around, cleaning, laundry, unpacking, and also packing. We're going camping the day after tomorrow, for three nights. But you need just as much stuff for three nights as you would for a week, it seems. And now the forecast is calling for rain, ugh. Rain, tents, dogs, small children (the grand kids!), ugh.

Anyway, yesterday I brought Miss Char and Miss Cam over to the school and dropped off their registration papers. Then we returned the overdue library books, but didn't go into the library for refills because I didn't have my library card, oops. (I reconfigured my purse for the Norway trip, didn't need all those cards over there!). We also stopped at the store and got most of what we'll need for camping. We're having steak on Thursday, pulled pork on Friday, burgers and hot dogs on Saturday. I'm also making a pasta salad (it's easy to make, and keeps well in a large zip-lock baggy or two in the cooler). We HAD to get Twizzlers, because apparently they're a camping staple, as well as marshmallows and graham crackers and Hershey bars. Coffee, tortilla chips, sour cream (for with the pulled pork), a tub of bubble gum (what?! It was half price!), chips, almonds, a family sized package of Oreos...

This fine morning, I have a dentist appointment. A filling in a molar, which is no fair. I eat very little sugar, and brush my teeth at LEAST three times a day. I would rather have a baby in a field on a hot day than sit in that dentist chair and hear the whir of the drill. I detest the dentist. Not the man himself, but just the whole thing. How on earth can I keep my mouth open that wide for that long? I have a fear my jaw will lock open. I hate it. And don't give me that "thankful we can have good teeth" rigamarole. I mean, you suffer through the needle poke, and the prodding and the drilling and the packing and the stupid numb face, then you get billed for it. :)

After the appointment, we have to get the pork and some pepperoni, and stop at the Tractor Supply for some dog things, then, hopefully, home and maybe for a swim in the pool. Suzanne has left to go on a hike with her friends, Jonathan is working, Evelyn is working, Sonja is in Germany, it's just the "little" girls and me. Kathryn and I have a phone date for this afternoon, and I talked to Samuel yesterday for a bit on the phone. He is coming to New York in a few weeks for drill, he's in the National Guard. He can commute from here, so we'll see him in the evenings. I think Kathryn will be here then too, as she and her husband are coming for a visit!!! (I can't wait to see her all cute and pregnant!)


This isn't even all the chocolate booty from Norway. We ate a bar after dinner last night (Paul, Suzanne, Char, Cam, me. I had only one square)(We had steak, marinated in fresh squeezed lime juice, rosemary, salt and pepper, then grilled...and local corn on the cob, oh summery yum. I ate only one meal yesterday, so it was a good one...steak and one ear of corn, and the square of chocolate...). We also ate one bag of SMASH, which...yum. It's Bugles dipped in Norwegian chocolate. Camille and I ate it on the plane. I stuck to my diet MOST of the time in Norway...I had ice cream once, plus the day I caved and had one scoop of vanilla in my coffee at the apartment. I ate a little tiny bit of chocolate here and there with my one meal a day, and one afternoon had some sweet potato fries. There are also a few more packages of KvikkLunsj not pictured. But don't worry, we won't eat them all. They're to give away.

And it's time to get moving to go out the door....