Memorial Weekend

I figured I would jot down some of this weekend before I hunker down at work (yes I am working today, but it's all good, as I am taking off most of the week to head off to my reunion and since I'm almost out of vacation days, I switched my holiday - so only one more day of work this week after today!) Anyways, last week was a bit crazy. Work, of course, has been getting heavier and heavier, and had some blow down fights (in the most professional way of course). But, in the end, Friday ended off on an up note. I had had a conference call on a project I'm working on, with the architect and civil engineer. I've not been giving the project enough attention, but on the call spent time talking through things and really working as a facilitator instead of an expert, I think we might have shifted the path of the project a bit. What I'm trying to say is that most of the time it seems you are managing projects, but not actually accomplishing any great feats, which is typical of the industry (side note, as an engineer I spent about 20% of my time doing engineering design, the rest of the time was paperwork, managing, etc. Switched to architecture, only to discover that it was exactly the same, except that 20% was now spent designing the building, the rest was the nitty gritty redundant stuff still.) Anyways, it was a rewarding way to cap the week and got positive feed back from the engineer.

Saturday morning picked up my step-sister, Karin, from the airport and we headed up to Vermont for the weekend. Except, and for the life of me I don't know how, we missed the sign for I-95 off the turnpike. Anyways, we took a little "detour" through some quaint New England towns. It was fun hanging out with the blended family. I think it might have been the first time it was just the four of us (and not my brother, as usually we get together around the holidays). Karin and I decided to treat ourselves to a pedicure Saturday. However, it must be pointed out that people in southern Vermont do not seem to garner a high demand for mani's and pedi's. We spent the afternoon hunting around to find a place - once place had gone out of business, several salons offered them but at twice the rate they should be, and we even hopped over to NH but they only did mani's. There was only one place in town on Main street and they were booked for 2 hours. We tried killing time and window shopping, but in the end cut our losses and headed home. The funny part was how we were greated by dad and Barbro. They were both ohhing and ahhing over our pretty "new" toes - so I guess the standard is different in Vermont.

It was a good distraction though as dad and I had plotted to make coconut cupcakes for Karin and Barbro's birthday's (they were both last week). So while we were all out of the house, dad baked the cupcakes and aired the house after so there was no telling smell upon our return. And then while bbq'ing for dinner, I quickly iced and prepped the cupcakes. It was a fun little suprise as neither had figured out what we were doing - it was kind of like shooting the moon. We spent the weekend just hanging out around the house (other than the fruitless pedi run), and ended up playing cards most of the time - Hearts. Last time I played (and when I say played, I mean for hours and hours), was in college on my term abroad in Wales. Joanne, Cece and I were addicted to it and we would always seem to have a floater we could talk into playing with us for awhile. But that was the only group I've played with. Anyways, it took awhile, as we had to teach Barbro how to play and I had to figure out how everyone played. It was fun and we were all able to shoot the moon (except Barbro, but she learnt the game so it's understandable). I have to say, I had forgotten the adrenline rush you get when you are trying to shoot the moon, and it's down to the last two pivotal hands. The funny thing was, I was doing awful at first because I was playing as if I was playing with Cec and Joanne who play completly different. So part way through I shifted strategy. And I'm giving away my secret perhaps (or perhaps I'm throwing out a red herring to dad), but my strategy shifted from trying to shoot the moon to the opposite - just trying to prevent other people from shooting the moon, and simultaneously dumping the queen (high points) on whoever had the lowest score. It worked out pretty well for awhile, even got the scores to be within a few points of each other. The funny thing was, at one point, I didn't have a choice BUT to shoot the moon because of how the first few rounds of the game played out. It was kind of funny that it went against my strategy but I was forced to go for it. Anyways, this is all probably boring for those of you non-card players. But we had a lot of laughs and Karin and I got sucked into the strange world of dad and Barbro - funny humor. It was nice to share with someone, as I usually am just laughing on my own when visiting. Also, had a great time talking with my brother Nick who had called since we were all there. Just learnt that a friend of his Shweda (sp?) that we had met while visiting, ended up getting money and is going to be comign to law school at Harvard!

So after a relaxing two days, headed back home and was able to meet up with Joanne and Kevin, her boyfriend (of over a year, hmmm). They were staying at the Weston in town and so I ended up picking them up and it was me who knew of a place to just go and hang out (that never happens). We had a great time and they are such a cute couple together. We had a lot of laughs, but I think the beer and the shear exhaustion they were experiencing (they hadn't slept the night before due to the heat) helped. I have to remember that I should call him Bubba (after the horse he rode in Hawaii), so need to jot it down here. It's a great nickname (if you can forget about some of the political conotations). Speaking of which, I just found a picture of the horse, and them. It was great seeing Joanne and falling into our old friendship. It was short, but will see her in just a few days! It was a great weekend, full of fun, happy, enjoying good, nice people.