Catching up

Heading to the birthday dinner

Here’s a picture from my birthday—we’re dressed to go to dinner and I’m wearing one of the dresses I made.

My cake

And here’s a picture of my birthday cake. Kent told them the name to put on the cake and he said there was a pause and they asked if I used the whole name. I think maybe the decorator started to spell my name incorrectly because you can see a bit of a bobble in the script. I’m sure it was very hard to get all nine letters on that cake!






Smithfield got a dusting of snow late Saturday afternoon and this is a picture of Alison getting ready to run, run, run in it. The next picture is Eliot at the door watching her. Pretty cute, huh.

Alison has gotten old enough that she understands when someone is leaving. Yesterday after lunch, she walked toward me and I could see she was tearing up and wanted me to hold her. I picked her up and she told me in a tiny sad voice that she didn’t want me to leave. Awww that broke my heart.


All in all, I had a really fantastic visit. I love seeing Ben and Jen and the kids and even more, I love it that they invited Kent and me to see the ultrasound. I feel very fortunate to have family like this.

What I did on vacation

Do you remember having to write those silly essays the first day back to school when you were in grade school? Here’s what I did and didn’t do while I was gone:

• Didn’t get sunburned. It helps a lot that I married a redhead who only burns. We are diligent with the sunblock and shade.
• Sat on our balcony a lot. That’s because it was extremely windy at Ocho Rios. In fact, none of the normal water activities occurred last week—no sailing, wind surfing, no catamaran cruise or glass bottom boat trips or even scuba or snorkeling. The seas were pretty rough and the wind was relentless. We felt sorry for the people who chose that resort so they could go out to the little island where nude sunbathing is allowed. The island was only open for half a day on Thursday and again on Friday. Plus it rained a lot. Rain in Jamaica is still better than winter rain in Boston.
• Got sick. Yep, I got a stomach virus that required staying in for a good day and a half. Rotten timing.
• Sat on the beach when it wasn’t raining and I wasn’t hanging out in the bathroom. I love watching the ocean.
• Read eight books. I’m so thankful I have a Kindle because I wouldn’t have carried eight books with me.
• Ran into the same two awesome couples we had dinner with two years ago on my birthday. We made sure we had dinner again with them this year and just generally enjoyed the heck out of seeing them. Kent and I have decided we want to be like June and Charlie as we grow old. Now we just need to find a Peggy and Joe to hang out with us.
• Had dinner our last night there at the restaurant that’s built out over the water. That was both the best food we had there and the coolest view.

Getting home was a chore, I won’t lie. The weather was bad enough that our tiny plane from the Ian Fleming Int’l Airport (their spelling) to Montego Bay ran 40 minutes late which cut things closer than I would like getting cleared through Customs and security. I told Kent he can expect as I get older that I’ll want to get to the airport earlier and earlier and probably when I’m in my 80s, we’ll need to get there the week before. Plus it was pretty bumpy—not the worse turbulence I’ve ever felt but it’s somehow scarier in a tiny plane.

As I was boarding the plane to head back to the US, the retractable handle on my suitcase decided now was a good time to quit working. It’s still broken and will go off to the repair shop shortly (so glad for a real life time guarantee). Then the pilots for our flight from Montego Bay to JFK couldn’t get into the cockpit (security code didn’t work). That problem was resolved the old fashioned way, with brute force.

Anyway, I could go on but I won't. We’re back and it was a decent vacation. The best part about it was spending all that uninterrupted time with Kent. He tells me he wishes I could relax as much at home as I do when we go someplace else. I do too, but I think that’s not likely to happen. So I will take the vacation with him whenever I can get it and turn into a jellyfish then.

Mixed results

The title is a little misleading; the results aren’t mixed because the dress is done and turned out OK. It's my opinion about the dress that's mixed.

I tried making this McCall’s pattern last fall out of a very stretchy sweater knit. That poor dress ended up as a great big lesson on the wrong kind of material to use for someone new to working with knits. I still have the pieces but I’m not sure anything can be resurrected from that attempt.

I also wasn’t sure I actually liked the pattern, but I was willing to give it another try. You might remember I made this skirt from a tutorial I found online. While the skirt turned out fine, I recognized that (a) it’s not really my style and (b) I have no idea where I’d wear it. So I picked out the stitching holding the elastic together, and that skirt became the bottom of the new dress. I had enough material left to cut out the top this weekend.

Here’s the finished product—yes it’s on a hanger, but my photographer isn’t home so pictures of me wearing the dress will have to wait.

I still love the material, and the color too. But I’m not sure this is the most flattering dress for me. Unless Kent barfs on it, though, I’ll probably still take it to Jamaica. While we don’t have to dress formally for dinner at the resort, they do have a dress code and I don’t have lots of suitable dresses. This one should work.

One more Jamaica picture

This picture was taken from the tiny plane on the way back to Montego Bay.


Now I return you to your typical dreary February weather.

Jamaica part 2

Last year we took a few pictures. This year we took even fewer; in fact, most of our pictures were taken on the tiny, propeller plane because the view from 2,000 feet was amazing.

But Kent did get this picture which I really like. You can see how pretty Bloody Bay is, and you can see how pale Kent is. He’s very good about using sunblock because he doesn’t tan, he only burns. He's so pale (how pale is he?) that even one of the massage therapists noticed—she asked us why he didn’t have tan lines. I guess red heads aren’t exactly common in Jamaica.

Jamaica

Last year we took the resort’s shuttle from Montego Bay to Couples Negril, which is about a 90 minute drive. We were both terrified the entire time because Jamaicans drive like insane people, no joke. I’ve been in traffic in New York City, Boston, London, Rome, and Beijing and Jamaica tops the list for driving insanity.

So this year we forked over the money to take a tiny little plane instead. The ride was 15 minutes long and in spite of my fears (hey it was a TINY propeller plane), very smooth and easy. Plus the view was amazing. We decided that was the best money we spent during our vacation.

Normally we aren’t the kind of people who sit around and do nothing while traveling but that’s what we mostly did last year and it’s entirely what we did this year. I read almost seven books (didn’t finish the last one because of a mishap involving my Kindle which is a polite way of saying someone lost it—no not me). But otherwise, we flopped around on beach chairs under palm trees, drank fruity drinks off and on and escaped the daily afternoon rain showers by hanging out on our patio which had a great view of the ocean.

I’ll write more later. I’m sitting in the Delta Sky Club getting ready to head to my gate to catch a flight. I’m going to Shreveport, LA and I’ve never been to Louisiana before.

More about Jamaica

We got there too late on Monday to sign up for any of the things that required sign up a day in advance, like snorkeling or the glass bottom boat tour. So Tuesday we took a sailing lesson instead and then went sailing in the bay for a while. I also went to yoga late that afternoon—that’s about as close as I’ll get to bikram yoga since it was held outside on a shaded deck area. While it was warm, the tropical breezes kept things pretty comfy and being outside was really nice. I found I didn’t want to be in air conditioning while I was there, except to sleep.

Wednesday we took a wind surfing lesson. If you’ve never tried wind surfing, I will say it’s pretty tough. You balance on the windsurf board taking into account the pitch and yaw of the water plus you have the mast, boom and sail which can move in any direction at all (except of course directly under the windsurf). I was very proud we tried and even though I didn’t master it, I sure had fun.

We booked a couples massage Wednesday afternoon which was perfect timing after the windsurfing that morning. Like the yoga, the spa area wasn’t air conditioned and it was very pleasant with the breezes. We were both pretty dopey after that.

Wednesday night we had dinner at the one restaurant with a dress code which also required reservations. The restaurant had a few two-top tables and then some four- and six-top tables. When Kent made the reservations, he was asked what we preferred for seating. My husband knows me well so he asked for a six-top table. He figured a four-top was sort of a gamble because we might end up sitting with two very shy people, but with a six-top we would have a better chance of having good dinner companions. And we really lucked out—we had dinner with two couples from New Jersey. June and Peggy have known each other since kindergarten, and in fact June and her husband Charlie set up Peggy with Joe. They really made my birthday dinner very enjoyable—we laughed so much and had such a great time with them. The picture is of the birthday cake our server arranged once he realized it was my birthday. I also got another cake in our room, so we had plenty of cake.

Thursday we took the glass bottom boat tour in the morning, and then that afternoon we went snorkeling. The water was pretty choppy by then so we both got water in our snorkels a few times which was disconcerting. We got the hang of things pretty quickly and saw all sorts of fish and coral and sea urchins plus a small stingray. Others who snorkeled with us saw some barracudas too, but we weren’t snorkeling where they were so we missed it.

We didn’t take a lot of pictures while we were there, mostly because we were so busy doing nothing. You’ll just have to take my word for it that we had a wonderful time and we’re already trying to figure out how to go back.

Fantastic

Sadly, we returned to reality late Friday. I’ve never gone to an all-inclusive place before, and wasn’t sure what to expect. All I can say is this was the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had, and part of it was being at an all-inclusive.

I’ve heard that some all-inclusives don’t really include everything, but this one did. Sure there were two or three additional activities that cost more, but they were clearly different. For example, snorkeling was included—and if you wanted to go on a night snorkeling trip, that cost $35 extra per person. But the normal snorkeling didn’t cost anything extra. If I recall correctly, fees for scuba diving didn’t kick in until you were scuba diving for certification, otherwise that too cost nothing.

So we took full advantage of the water sports and went sailing on a Hobie Cat, took a wind surfing lesson on Wednesday (very hard but very fun), went on a glass bottom boat tour, and snorkeled. We also got in plenty of time at the beach. We were prepared to stay pool side if that’s where the better shade was, but the beach had trees which cast good shade while the pool’s umbrellas were pretty small.

I’m off for my first day of work today so I’ll post more tomorrow about our trip. Just know it was an amazing vacation and we hope we can go back sometime.

Progress

Reconstruction continues on our apartment. In the last couple of weeks we’ve:

*Ordered the kitchen appliances and cabinets.
*Ordered the new flooring—we are putting in engineered wood, which is wood veneer on top of engineered wood.
*Bought the tile for the bathtub.
*Picked (but haven’t yet purchased) a new vanity for the bathroom.
*Decided we did want to put in the split ductless heating/cooling system.
*Bought a new hot water heater.

And our general contractor has made a lot of progress too.

*All the ruined dry wall has been removed through out the apartment.
*The tile from the tub/shower was removed.
*The marble tiles in our hall and office areas have been cleaned and where necessary, regrouted.
*The new closet in our bedroom has been framed out (hurrah!).

There’s probably more but I’m not remembering all that at the moment. Instead I’m busy packing for our trip to Jamaica. I may post a picture or two this week but then again, I may be busy doing nothing.

See you next weekend!